Terrible loss today of the iconoclastic activist singer songwriter and Irish mystic Sinead O’Connor at a mere 56
BBC reports:
Irish singer and activist Sinéad O’Connor has died at the age of 56. On July 26, her family announced the news “with great sadness”, saying “her family and friends are devastated”. The cause of death has not been made public. She was best known for her single Nothing Compares 2 U, released in 1990, which reached number one and brought her worldwide fame.
he released her first critically acclaimed album The Lion And The Cobra in 1987, which entered the top 40 in the UK and US. Her follow-up was I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, which included Nothing Compares 2 U. Written by Prince, the song reached number one around the world, including in the US and the UK.
O’Connor, who was outspoken in her social and political views, released 10 studio albums between 1987 and 2014. In 1991, she was was named artist of the year by Rolling Stone magazine and took home the Brit Award for international female solo artist. The following year, one of the most notable events of her career took place when she ripped up a picture of Pope John Paul II on US TV show Saturday Night Live, where she was the invited performer.
Following an acapella performance of Bob Marley’s War, she looked at the camera and said “fight the real enemy”, a protest against child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Her actions resulted in her being banned for life by broadcaster NBC and protests against her in the US, which saw copies of her records destroyed in New York’s Times Square. “I’m not sorry I did it. It was brilliant,” she said in an interview with the New York Times in 2021.
Converting to Islam in 2018, the Dublin singer changed her name to Shuhada’ Sadaqat, but continued to perform under her birth name. She released a memoir, Rememberings, in 2021. In January 2022, her 17-year-old son Shane was found dead after being reported missing two days previously. The singer later cancelled all live performances for the rest of 2022 due to her “continuing grief” following the death of her son. O’Connor paid tribute to Shane in one of her final tweets, calling him “the love of my life, the lamp of my soul, we were one soul in two halves”.
Belfast filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson, one of the last few people to speak to O’Connor before her death, said she was “devastated” by the news. Ferguson had been working on a documentary film about O’Connor, titled Nothing Compares, which is set to be released on July 29. “Our film really, for me, it was a love letter to Sinéad. It was made over many, many years,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. “And made because of the impact she’d had on me as a young girl growing up in Ireland. “She is one of the most radical, incredible musicians that we’ve had. And we were very, very lucky to have had her.”
Singer Alison Moyet said O’Connor had an “astounding presence” and a voice that “cracked stone with force by increment”. “As beautiful as any girl around & never traded on that card. I loved that about her. Iconoclast.” Musician Tim Burgess of the Charlatans said: “Sinead was the true embodiment of a punk spirit. She did not compromise and that made her life more of a struggle. Hoping that she has found peace.”
Irish film director Mark Cousins added: “Sinéad O’Connor was our Irish wild side. Such a big part of our imagined lives.” Singer Bryan Adams, who had collaborated with O’Connor, wrote: “RIP Sinéad O’Connor, I loved working with you making photos, doing gigs in Ireland together and chats, all my love to your family.”
Music writer Mark Savage wrote: “When she ripped up a picture of the Pope on US television, she was thinking about victims of abuse, not about her image. Nothing Compares 2 U was the outlier: a song that made her famous against her wishes. At heart, she was a protest singer with a voice that demanded to be heard. That is how we should remember her.” - bbc.com
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